On June 9th, Anthropic shipped the most powerful AI model the public had ever been allowed to touch.

The most powerful AI model on the planet launched, got pulled by the US government 3 days later, and came back 3 weeks after that. In this episode I break down what the Claude Fable 5 saga means for any finance pro building AI into real work, and the 3 moves that keep a vanished tool from blowing up your deadline.

• Walk through the full Fable 5 timeline: launch, government pull, and return in about 3 weeks.
• See why frontier AI is a different dependency than Excel or your ERP.
• Reframe model risk as concentration risk, the kind finance already manages.
• Get 3 moves to protect deadline work when a model can vanish overnight.

Mike runs F9 Finance and is a senior finance leader working in the trenches. He writes the Finance AI Insider newsletter and runs the Finance AI Lab community for finance pros learning AI without the hype.

This week's episode is brought to you by Finance AI Lab. One new AI skill. Every two weeks. 15 minutes a day. The Lab is where finance pros build the AI skills that make them the ones their company can't afford to lose. Each roadmap runs ten working days at fifteen minutes each. Fifty-nine dollars a month, cancel anytime. https://www.f9finance.com/finance-ai-lab/

• Get the weekly newsletter: Finance AI Insider, one email a week with the AI workflows worth your time. https://www.f9finance.com/newsletter/
• Watch on YouTube: F9 Finance, full episode video https://www.youtube.com/@F9Finance

Every vendor in finance is selling AI right now, and most of the pilots are quietly stalling. In this episode I break down the three failure modes I keep seeing across real finance functions, why each one happens, and the exact set of questions I'd ask before any AI tool ever rolls into your function again. If you've watched an AI pilot go quiet in the last year, or you're staring down a vendor deck right now, this one is for you.

• Why "tool first, not job first" kills most AI rollouts before month 3
• The specific question that separates pilots that ship from pilots that stall
• Why the CFO mandate is necessary but not sufficient (and who actually needs to own the build)
• The AI-ready data myth vendors are selling, and what's really the bottleneck
• The 3 questions to ask before any AI tool gets bought in your finance org

"The finance pros who learn to ask these three questions become the people their function relies on when AI is on the table. They become the ones their company can't afford to lose."

• Finance AI Insider newsletter (free, prompts, workflows, and tips each week): https://www.f9finance.com/newsletter/
• F9 Finance on YouTube (full episode video plus screen recordings for build episodes): https://www.youtube.com/@f9finance

Mike runs F9 Finance and is a senior finance leader working in the trenches. He writes the Finance AI Insider newsletter and runs the Finance AI Lab community for finance pros learning AI without the hype.

This week's episode is brought to you by Finance AI Lab. One new AI skill. Every two weeks. 15 minutes a day. The Lab is where finance pros build the AI skills that make them the ones their company can't afford to lose. Each roadmap runs ten working days at fifteen minutes each. Fifty-nine dollars a month, cancel anytime. https://www.f9finance.com/finance-ai-lab/

The AI playbook for finance pros who want their nights back.

The finance job is getting bigger every quarter. The day isn't getting any longer. Every week there's a new tool, a new LinkedIn post about someone who automated their entire close, a new AI conversation happening around you.

If you're the finance pro trying to keep up without giving up your evenings, your weekends, or the life you have outside the work, this show is built for you.

Excel at AI in Finance is a weekly podcast for corporate finance pros learning AI without the hype. Each week you get one thing you can take into your finance job right away:

• A workflow you can rebuild on Monday
• A frame for handling AI when your CFO asks
• An honest read on the trend everyone's talking about
• A conversation with someone who's already done the thing

Every episode opens with a real story from Mike's desk or a finance pro he's worked with. Not a hypothetical. Then a breakdown of what actually works. And an honest counterpoint at the close, because the AI advice you're hearing everywhere else has almost never touched a real finance function.

The rule: if a workflow only ships in a vendor demo, it doesn't ship on the show.

Because the finance pros who learn AI don't just keep their jobs. They become the ones their company can't afford to lose.

New episodes every Tuesday.

About the host:

Mike runs F9 Finance and is a senior finance leader working in the trenches. He writes the Finance AI Insider newsletter and runs the Finance AI Lab community for finance pros learning AI without the hype.